Letters

Letters

SCO Crimes

Following the SCO vs. IBM fiasco in LJ and various other publications,
I have not seen any mention of possible criminal charges that could
be filed against SCO and its officers should they lose their case.
I would expect to see numerous counts of mail fraud to be followed up by
extortion charges for sending letters demanding payment. I'm no lawyer,
but I'd think racketeering charges may even be warranted.

Correct URL for PhotoGen

Just wanted to let you know that the URL listed for my project (PhotoGen)
is not correct [LJ, October 2003, page 10]. You guys have shawley.mpip.org, and it is supposed to
be shawley.myip.org.
By the way, thanks for putting my project in the mag, that rocks!

—
Jeremy

More on Audio Apps, Please

I liked the blurb about the Jahshaka video editor in the October 2003
issue. However, I'd like to see some coverage on audio multitracking
software or audio software in general. Ardour is a very powerful tool
for audio recording, and I think that many artists would benefit from
knowing that they don't have to pay $1,000 plus for a ProTools rig to
produce their art effectively. And lastly, I think Linux Journal is fabulous; I read every issue cover to cover. Thank you.

—
Jeremy Sherrer

Check out the Pure Data article on page 60. —Ed.

New Wi-Fi Freedom in France

I am a French Linux Journal reader. I found the article, “Linux
Makes Wi-Fi Happen in New York City” by Doc Searls, in the September
2003 issue of LJ, very interesting, but I would like
to comment on the following sentence: “In Europe they use 1–13,
except for France, where they use 10–13.” Since July 25, 2003,
you can use channels 1–13 in France.

—
Romain Touze Paris,
France

Airplane Seatback System Runs Linux

The most amazing thing happened when I was flying
back from Detroit—where I had been teaching a
Linux course for one of our customers—to Amsterdam
late Wednesday night. The Northwest airplane
was a brand-new Airbus 330, which had just been
put into service the week before. It's their only
Airbus so far, and it was completely new to the
cabin crew. They told me that they had had their
training for this aircraft based on photos from
the galley.

The A330 is equipped with an in-flight
entertainment system for each and every
individual passenger—even in cattle class every
seat has its own LCD panel, remote control,
et cetera. The system is unique in the respect
that it allows you to choose and start a movie at
any time. So every passenger could be watching a
different part of a movie at the same time. (This
is actually great—sometimes you hear a giggle
behind you, and five minutes later a giggle in
front of you. Two people watching the same thing,
only with five minutes difference in the time they
started it. Happened again a few times.)

Anyway, the cabin crew did not know how to operate
the system properly, so we couldn't even get our
reading lights going. After they messed with it
for about 30 minutes, they announced over the PA
system that they would be doing a full power reset
on the system. They had evidently talked to tech
support via the sat phone, and that seemed to be
the only resolution. And true enough, power went
off and the systems started booting—Linux.

I could not believe my eyes. Here were more than
300 passengers staring at Tux's friendly smile,
while Linux was booting on each and every console,
in frame-buffer mode. I could see that they are
using cramfs for their filesystems, but not
much else before X took over. Needless to say,
I was amazed. I should have brought a camera with
me. That would have been a great picture for LJ.

Once the system was rebooted, it worked
properly. Movies, multi-user games, interactive
maps, surveys, you name it. You could even send
e-mail (but that would cost $2.50 US, and you
needed to type it using a joystick-like device—not very fast).
Currently, I think the range
of applications is actually quite limited. The
only multi-user games they've got right now are
multiplayer reversi, and some sort of trivia
quiz. But can you imagine playing Quake at 30,000
feet with the whole passenger load or getting a
true chess competition going on in-flight?
Anyway, just wanted to let you know that our
favorite OS is not only used on earth and in space,
but in between these two as well, and it's keeping a
lot of people entertained.

— Wouter Liefting IBM Learning Services

Another Happy Reader

I just wanted to let you know that Linux Journal
continues to be my favorite source of Linux-related
information. And, it has become my dog Gracie's
magazine of choice as well. As she's only three months
old, she does get tired easily and has to take an
occasional nap.
7108f1.jpg

— Larry Varney

Ahoy, Linux Cruisers!

I've just read Don Marti's review of Linux
Lunacy 2003 on the Web [www.linuxjournal.com/article/7149]. It was great fun. Really
worthwhile. For example, Guido van Rossum described
the architectural decisions and trade-offs that
are incorporated into Python. He tailored the talk
to our interests and was happy to answer specific
questions, even outside of the conference sessions.
Don didn't mention the popular third stream with LPI
training/certification.
I'd also comment on the tremendous accessibility,
inclusiveness and friendliness of the speakers
and other attendees. There were plenty of
technical discussions outside of formal lectures.
Geek cruisers were really easy to spot hanging out
in the Internet cafe happily chatting and eating
cake crowded together in the Lido, and burning
the midnight oil in the Crow's Nest.

More on Desktop Linux, Please

I read Linux Journal regularly and would really appreciate seeing your
format expand to include a strong section devoted to the desktop—in
particular, to reviewing, critically, applications of merit outside the
traditional office suite and to providing installation instructions for
a modest selection of currently available laptops that sell for about
$1,300 or less.
Years ago, I attempted to get Linux running productively in a desktop
environment on a Dell laptop, and failed. I have been waiting to
accomplish the same thing again (for over four years, to be exact), and every
time I looked closely I found numerous unresolved issues with regard to
laptops and power management in particular, font management and display
(important to me), and no serious page layout applications.

— Walter Hollenberg

We do cover individual laptop models on our Web
site. There is a lot of new and exciting desktop
software available, and we have a special desktop
issue planned for March 2004. —Ed.

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